Cigarettes and cash stolen A man with a gun robbed a convenience store clerk of cash and cigarettes Jan. 21 in Lyan . vate sobbery occurred at approxima‘ 3:10 a.m. coc cording to a police kesman the clerk wk whi : ding some paperwo en: a man walked into the store | to a postal stand behind the” i elerk. : me man deman ded mo _ and cigarettes. He pointed a | black revolver and Pas wear- _ ing a'ski mask. - Another man wearing a ski : mask entered the store and ‘ broke two of the store’s secu- _Fity cameras with a stick. The suspects fled with cash and cigarettes. " ‘The police are looki the pair. The aja with € 1c. ‘Rava be “black gle gloves and “a grey and dark Bier ohd mask. He is possibly in his late 20s. The suspect with the stick. Lwore dark sweat pants, a blue : jean jacket, black gloves and a . black ski mask. He is also” - believed to be in his late 20s. Contact. Const. Chan at . the North Vancouver RCMP 85-1311. — By Michael Becker ‘with carton A carton of milk to the head failed to stop a nimble-fin-.. gered thief Jan. 22 in West hand struck hin the money, i Police describe the thief as - being Caucasian, approxi- mately 38 years old and 183 centimetres (six feet) tall. He was wearing a blue jean jacket with a beige cord collar and a green woolen cap. He drove off in a dark-colored. Camaro or Firebird. - West Vancouver Police remind the public not to put safety at tisk when witnessing a crime. - Call the police at 925- 7300. : — By Michael Res: er ae A Lynn Valley Blackhawk shuts his eyes tight while performing ‘a bicycle kick as a Lynn Valley Biackbird tries to block the kick during action at the 10th Annual North Shore Youth Soccer * Association Indoor Tournament. Over 150 teams took part in the tournament at 11 sites across the North Shore. . Friday, January 24, 1997 — North Shore News — 3 Court hears defence in assault trial Alleged victim’s reputation weighed By Anna Marie 0’Angelo News Reporter . THE acting manager of a North Vancouver grocery store testified on Wednesday that he was gossipirg with co- workers in the coffee room shortly after a distraught. employee told him about an alleged sexual assault at: work. “I didn’t take it seriously,” said Jeff Chute. Chute, 23, was testifying in B.C. Supreme Court in a non-jury trial involving his friend, Marcel Bouchard. . Bouchard is charged with four counts of sexually assaulting four female: co-workers. The charges involved separate incidents alleged .to have occurred between January 1991 and November 1994. The charges involye fondling : the complainants’ breasts and touching their genital areas. - Bouchard, 33, pleaded not guilty to the charges. * . _ Bouchard was and is the produce manager at a grocery store at - 3030 Lonsdale Ave. At the time of the alleged offences, the store was called Super Valu. It is now called the Queensdale Market. . Chute testified he was the relief nianager working the day after a 15-year-old deli staff member claimed Bouchard sex- ually assaulted her in November 1994, “She was acting kind of strange. I went up to her and asked what was wrong,” testified “Menzies agreed with the defence lawyer’s suggestion that the working atmosphere at. -. ° the store included a lot - By Jolanda Waskito- Contributing Writer THE owner of Nerth Vancouver’s Avalon Hotel again denied allegations against him — this time of sexual harassment and dis- crimination at a B.C. Council of Human Rights hearing in Vancouver Wednesday. Hutchinson, a three-time divorcee - who was the owner of the Lynnwood Hotel, was acquitted in B.C. Supreme Court last year of four charges of sex- ual assault. ° On Wednesday, when Hutchinson’s lawyer Larry Page asked the 47-year-old if he’d had sex in the front seat of his sports car in 1982 with a employee then aged 19, he said, “No.” Hutchinson also denied calling the woman into his office a week after the incident to reprimand her for telling others at work of the tryst. The woman, who cannot be iden- tified because of a publication ban issued in the court case, had earlier tes- tified at the hearing that she and Hutchinson had sex after he offered her a ride home after work. One of his accusers in the sexual assault charges made the sexual harass~ ment and discrimination complaint to the B.C. Council of Human Rights in September 1993. The complainant, now in her carly 30s, worked at the hotel from March 1987 until she took a medical leave in July 1993. As Hutchinson testified, he averted his eyes from her hard stare. Referring to the woman who alleges she had sex with him in his car, he said: “I thought she had a crush on me. She would blush and giggle and she always hurg around.” He denied ever taking advantage of Hote! owner denies allegations of sex. that crush, “(She) was a nice young lady. Mona (Simpson, Avalon assistant manager) and | took her uncer our wing. It was a companion-type rela- tionship.” Page asked his client if, according to the woman’s testimony, ‘he had any sexual contact with her in the hotel, particularly in Hutchinson's office and in a back office. “Te’s rotally false,” he said. The woiman, a "co-worker of the complainant, quit working at the Avalon in June 1987 shortly after Hutchinson told a hotel workers’ union representative in confidence that he was concerned she was “look- ing hung-over or high” at work. “T told him I had a delicate matter and thought we could do something to help her,” Hutchinson said. He had a mecting with her two days after receiving her resignation letter. t was concemed as to why (she) was leaving,” he said. “She said she wasn’t getting along with Mona and that I had told Brian (the union rep) that she was a drug addict and her boyfriend was a drug dealer. “T told her it was all confidential between me and Brian and I told nobody else.” The woman gave Hutchinson another letter a few days later outlin- ing her reasons for leaving the hotel. “Pve decided to leave because you made me feel uncomfortable whenev- er you call me ‘doll’ or ‘darling,’ ” the letter stated. “It was just a word I used to use; you call your daughter ‘darling,’ 3 Hutchinson testified. “If she was working, | would have said to her ‘How are you this moming, darling?” Hutchinson said he was “shocked” at the letter. “It was obvious she never authored this letter. I thought perhaps her boyfriend was worried I would go See Witness page S ‘about a comment Christopher Chute made indicatin: Chute. Chute said he shared the girl’s information with his brother and store employee off-color jokes among, Christopher Chute and the store's butcher Roy Stevenson in’ the staff.” ?. the coffee room. Jeff Chute testified the girl had a bad reputation and. because of her rep utation he did not believe her when she testified under oath: On cross examination Chute said he based his conclusion: abou th young woman’s rcputation and honesty on the comments made by.two : part-time workers who had attended school with the girl. . ae Chute’s brother, Christopher Chute, echoed the same negative. com ments about the complainant’, 's honesty based on the same sources. “Id say it’s bad,” said Christopher Chute to defence lawyer Williams’ question about the complainant’s reputation. Christopher Chute, 22, testified he saw the com lainant joking an laughing with the accused at work on the day of the alleged assault. : Christopher Chute also testified Bouchard was his friend.» : On cross examination, prosecuting Crown lawyer Dawn Boblin asked that, Bouch: of joking and some would not have done what was alleged to have happened. Said Boblin, * Were you not telling the truth or trying to protect him?” Replied Christopher Chute, “ I probably was trying to protect him.”. -’ On Thursday, Bouchard’s fiance and common-law spouse Tracy : Menzies took the stand. Menzies, 27. has worked at the grocery store for more. than six years. Like other defence witnesses, Menzies agreed with the defence lawyer’s suggestion that the working atmosphere at the store included a lot of jok- ing and some off-color jokes among the staff. : Menzies testified that sexual touching consisting of rubbing shoulders took place at work. s Defence witness Karen Bodnaruk has worked at the grocery store, for the past 18 years. ; Bodnaruk, 36, said that the store employees got along and wire a “fun sort of family.” She testified she had briefly dealt with and spoken to ‘the: : complainant two times on the day of the alleged sexual assautt. im Bodnaruk said she did not notice anything unusual about the gitl’s & demeanor. : The trial is slated to conclude today before Mr. Justice Allan Stewart. @ Mitchell. @ Neighborhoods. m2 North Shore Alert. w@ Real Estate. ww Bright Lights. a Crossword i Home&Garden. 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